Louisiana Alcohol & Drugs: What you need to know

Employees. Louisiana permits drug testing of employees for certain drugs, including marijuana, opiates, cocaine, amphetamines, and phencyclidine. The tests can be random, for-cause, periodically announced, or post-accident. The tests cannot be performed on-site. Employers may not discharge an employee on the basis of a first-time positive test result; a confirming retest using a different testing method is required. The law applies to all employers, except those subject to a federally mandated drug testing program. Note also that employers using certain on-site drug screening tests may be exempt from the requirement that all drug testing be performed in certain certified laboratories (LA Rev. Stat. Sec. 49:1001et seq.).

For a Limited Time receive a FREE Safety Special Report on the "50 Tips For More-Effective Safety Training." Receive 75 pages of useful safety information broken down into three training sections. Download Now

All drug testing that may result in negative employment consequences must be performed in a laboratory certified for forensic drug testing by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), or a laboratory certified for forensic urine drug testing by the College of American Pathologists (CAP-FUDT), in compliance with the SAMHSA guidelines (LA Rev. Stat Sec. 49:1005).

An employer or an employer's agent may utilize a United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA)-cleared specimen testing method that uses a urine, blood, saliva, or hair sample, provided that the sample is processed in a laboratory with a SAMHSA or CAP-FUDT certification, using generally accepted cutoff levels as established by USFDA for the type of sample tested. Any sample collected will be subject to USFDA-cleared immunoassay screening and confirmation testing at a SAMHSA or CAP-FUDT certified laboratory. Samples that test positive must be preserved by the laboratory and available for challenge ...